Peter Gronquist: Searcher

Peter Gronquist is a multimedia, multidisciplinary artist. If you ask one to “describe the work,” the answer is never simple. Gronquist uses ceramics, painting, VR, 3d printing and video to express a common thread of exploration. For Gronquist, it is the endless possibilities in the creation of art that interests him most. He has no rules and does not tie himself to any outside expectations. In his exhibition Searcher, Gronquist explores light as an added material to his paintings. Using Plexiglas as part of the work rather than protection for it, he plays with the way light is reflected and projected off the matte surface of the paintings. His paintings seem to glow from within. Further playing with the sense of what is and what is not, Gronquist adds led lighting to some but not to others. With each painting we are compelled to stop and absorb.

Alongside his paintings Gronquist shares his series “A Visual History of the Invisible.” In these works he again uses a natural element, air, to express his curiosity. This series attempts to capture the shapes and constant presence of the wind. His large-scale outdoor fabric installations are filmed digitally, creating a mesmerizing presentation of the rhythm of the wind. Smaller scale fabrics are caught mid flow and preserved in resin and silver nitrate. The forms play with both light and air. They are Gronquist’s limitlessness encapsulated. The wonder of the natural world is clear throughout the Searcher.

Born 1979 in the United States, Peter Gronquist lives and works in Portland, OR. He attended the School of Visual Art New York and received a BA in painting from San Francisco Art Institute in 2001. He has exhibited in New York, London, Miami. Peter’s work has been published in GQ Magazine, Hyperallergic, Wired and he was recently named one of the top 15 new artists to collect by Business Insider.